Gun Fu
Gun fu, a portmanteau of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun gun] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_fu kung fu], is the style of sophisticated close-quarters gunplay seen in Hong Kong action cinema[1] and in Western films influenced by it. It often resembles a martial arts battle played out with FireArms instead of traditional weapons. It may also be described by other terms such as bullet ballet, gun kata, or gymnastic gunplay.[2] The focus of gun fu is both style and the usage of firearms in ways that they were not designed to be used. Shooting a gun from each hand, shots from behind the back, as well as the use of guns as melee weapons are all common. Other moves can involve shotguns, Uzis, rocket launchers, and just about anything else that can be worked into a cinematic shot. It is often mixed with hand-to-hand combat maneuvers, with many of the moves being derived from the works of Fiore dei Liberi's Fior di Battaglia. "Gun fu" has become a staple factor in modern action films due to its visually appealing nature (regardless of its actual practicality in a real-life combat situation). This is a contrast to American action movies of the 1980s which focused more on heavy weaponry and outright brute-force in firearm-based combat. Heroic bloodshed and gun fu Director John Woo originated the style in the Hong Kong film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Better_Tomorrow A Better Tomorrow] in 1986. The film launched the "heroic bloodshed" genre in Hong Kong, and "gun fu" action sequences became a regular feature in many of the subsequent heroic bloodshed films. John Woo continued to make several classic heroic bloodshed films, all featuring gun fu, and all starring leading man Chow Yun-fat. Chow wielding a gun in each hand became an iconic cinema image around the world. Anthony Leong wrote of the gunfights in A Better Tomorrow,[3] Stephen Hunter, writing in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post The Washington Post] wrote,[4] Other Hong Kong directors also began using gun fu sequences in films that were not strictly heroic bloodshed films, such as Wong Jing's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_Gamblers God of Gamblers] (1989). And there were several heroic bloodshed films that did not feature gun fu, but opted for more realistic combat, such as Ringo Lam's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_on_Fire_(1987_film) City on Fire] (1987). Spread to the West The popularity of John Woo's films, and the heroic bloodshed genre in general, in the West helped give the gun fu style greater visibility. Film-makers likeRobert Rodriguez were inspired to create action sequences modelled on the Hong Kong style. One of the first to demonstrate this was Rodriguez's[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperado_(film) Desperado] (1995). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix The Matrix] (1999) played a part in making "gun fu" the most popular form of firearm-based combat in cinema worldwide; since then, the style has become a staple of modern Western action films. One classic gun fu move consists of reloading two pistols simultaneously by releasing the empty magazines, pointing the guns to the ground, dropping two fresh magazines out of one's jacket sleeves, or strapped to one's legs, into the guns, and then carrying on shooting. In the film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletproof_Monk Bulletproof Monk](2003), The Monk With No Name (portrayed by Chow Yun-fat) empties two pistols, ejects the magazines and spins to kick the empty magazines at his assailants. In [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rundown The Rundown] (2003), Beck (Dwayne Johnson) fires two shotguns, flips both to be up-side down and pointing backwards, and snaps them between his arms and torso to reload them in an instant. The style is also featured (albeit in a small way and with the assistance of gadgets) in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_Croft:_Tomb_Raider Lara Croft: Tomb Raider] movies. In [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanted_(2008_film) Wanted] (2008), assassins belonging to The Fraternity possess the skill of "bending" bullets around obstacles; in a gunfight early in the film, one assassin knocks another bullet out of the air with his own round. In [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men_Origins:_Wolverine X-Men Origins: Wolverine] (2009), Agent Zero (Daniel Henney) reloads his handguns by throwing them into the air and catching them with the magazines he's holding in his hands. 1992 saw the introduction of gun fu to the horror movie script. In Sam Raimi's cult classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Darkness Army of Darkness] (1993), Ash (Bruce Campbell) uses a 12 gauge Remington double-barreled stage coach gun as both a close combat weapon and as the gun it is. Many scenes show Ash doing flips over the various undead, landing, shooting over his shoulder, even throwing the weapon and catching it only to continue to fire. The character John Preston (Christian Bale) demonstrates a system of martial arts called Gun Kata in writer/director Kurt Wimmer's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrium_(film) Equilibrium] (2002). Gun Kata is differentiated from other Gun Fu styles by a focus on rote memorization of probabilities, instead of feats of pure reflex. Through repeated simulations and practice, practitioners are able to fire at their attacker's position, while moving out of their attacker's most likely return fire trajectory and essentially dispatching their enemy while dodging their enemies' bullets. Preston also has special devices mounted into his sleeves/wrists that feed magazines smoothly into his weapon, but the Gun Kata itself provides him with optimum firing angles as well as defensive postures and movements. The 2006 film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_(film) Ultraviolet], also written and directed by Wimmer, featured much-anticipated "Gun Kata 2.0" scenes, which utilized a super-powered protagonist and futuristic technology to expand on the Gun Kata ideas created in Equilibrium. In the 2010 movie, Kick-Ass, the character Hit-Girl, played by Chloë Moretz, uses a lot of gun fu, with inspirations from Hong Kong action cinema movies of Chow Yun Fat and John Woo, and western films such as The Matrix. Category:Powers Category:Special Attacks Category:Abilities Category:Sports